Review: Beach Spikers (NGC)

Most peoples perception of Volleyball stems from a ludicrously oiled up Tom Cruise taking to the court and looking all manly in Top Gun, or maybe catching a late night glimpse of the sport on channel 5. Hoping to break into a so far untapped resource, Sega and Tecmo both have their own versions of the sport in the running. Sega’s Beach Spikers is the first to hit the sand and there’s not a diminutive actor in sight.

For many male gamers the front cover will be more than enough to convince a purchase, however look past the gorgeously sculpted female forms on display and you’ll actually find a fun challenging sports title with the expected Sega touches and all important the playability to match.

Presentation wise, Beach Spikers is typical Sega; it’s bold, bright, in your face and gets to the point quickly. Menus are easy to navigate around and now have the added extras of a World Tour and VS mode to complement the arcade conversion, all in all a decent package (the World Tour alone will see plenty of hours pass you by).

A good conversion of the game at hand will make or break a sports title and while Beach Spikers is very enjoyable to play (and superb in multi-player mode) there are a few problems that threaten to ruin things. First of all Beach Spikers is not as accessible as Sega’s other sports titles, this is down to the nature of the game though rather than any fault of the programmers. So while that usual Sega magic will eventually shine through, it takes a lot longer to reach you than the likes of Virtua Tennis. Secondly and most importantly however, the games biggest flaw is the awful A.I. of your partner.

Starting a World Tour will see you creating 2 Spikers from a variety of faces/costumes etc (though sadly bodies remain the same throughout). After you have created your 2 lovely ladies and you enter your first tournament, things go tits up, big time! Your computer-controlled partner is completely useless and is about as good at Volleyball as Homer Simpson is at parenting. She will run in the opposite direction, maddeningly stand motionless as the ball lands in front of her or simply do her own thing regardless of how the rest of the game is turning out.

Luckily after each game you are given various amounts of points to build your partner up with until she eventually gains the agility and stamina of Jackie Chan on speed. In fact she gets so good that later games become pretty redundant with most of your opponents becoming real walkovers, this is a real shame as for the majority of time there is much to enjoy. Finally there are plenty of new uniforms and the like to unlock in the Tour mode to help enhance longevity, unfortunately, however you are unable to use these on your existing character, an annoying and flawed oversight.

Like Virtua Tennis before it, Beach Spikers excels in a superb multiplayer mode that will keep your friends glued (or gawking at the screen). As well as the excellent Beach Spikers mode you can also take part in Beach Flags, Beach PK and Beach Countdown. Beach flags sees you paired up against an opposing team mate and laying face down in the sand, once the whistle goes you must quickly get up and dash to the flag before the other player does. Countdown sees you playing with a bomb while Beach PK is a novel (though not very good) take on a penalty shoot out. Though the standard Spikers mode will get the most use, the other ones deserve at least a few games and make for pleasant but shallow diversions.

The main talking point about Sega’s latest title though is obviously the game’s visuals. All the female characters involved are beautifully modelled and display breathtaking motion capture (and rather natty sports wear). Replays throughout feature superb animation and everything looks about as realistic as a current console can possibly manage. As well as lovely ladies, AM2 have also created some superbly realistic looking sand to grace your TV screen. Your players kick it up through hard play, sink into it after a high spike and in general interact incredibly well with it; the superb realization of the game’s environment is the final cherry on an already impressive cake.

Music throughout the game is standard Sega fare, with bouncy tunes and memorable little ditties that will have you humming along well after your mates have called it a day and you’re making you way to bed. Things take a turn for the worse with the incredibly annoying announcer and otherwise barring the general squeals and grunts of excitement from the women, there isn’t too much else to get excited about.

Ultimately Beach Spikers is yet another polished Sega arcade port with the extra bells and whistles we now expect on a home console. While it may be fantastic fun with 1 or more extra players, it falls down somewhat on the uneven single player game (why they couldn’t just let you control both characters like in the VS mode, I’ll never know). Overall Beach Spikers is a fun title that just lacks that little extra something when placed against the cream of other sports titles. In the short term though it sure makes for a fun little game. Tecmo, the ball’s in your court.

Rating: 7 / 10

Words by Darran Jones